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Field Naturalists' Club |
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Welcome to the Brereton Field Naturalist's Club (BFNC) web pages. If you notice any mistakes or have any comments please contact the Webmaster. Clicking on the Great Blue Heron in the upper left corner on any BFNC page will return you to this page. The photographs that appear at the top of each page were taken by BFNC members and will change as you refresh the pages. I will be placing trip reports on this page as I receive them from the trip leaders. They will be posted for a short period of time so check back frequently. The first report from Phyllis on our May 2 trip to the Gables is below. NEW PRESIDENT TAKES OFFICE After two years in office my term has president of the Breretons came to an end at the AGM on April 20. I want to thank all of the members of the executive who did all of the hard work that made my tasks relatively simple. You are a great group of people and I am glad I had the privilege of working with you. Your new president is David Lord and a message from him appears below. I also want to thank everyone who took the time to lead field trips for the club. Your generous donation of time and knowledge made great trips. I will still be around as web master so you will be seeing some commentary from me. Bruce Wilson, Past President/Web Master NEW PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Thanks to everyone who served on the executive this past year and those that will be working this year. Also thanks to everyone who has helped out on the field trips, and assisted with our other activities. Particular thanks and recognition go to Bruce Wilson our past president, who among his many other activities spearheaded us through our celebratory 60th anniversary events. Congratulations Bruce for a term well served. One of our aims is to acquire and disseminate knowledge of natural history. This of course we can do on the many well attended outings we have during the year. Grandparents bring your grandkids on these outings!!! Just a week or so ago we had a great outing looking at Woodcocks in Midhurst with Ian Cook. Most the attendees were young people and everyone had a great time. The outing took less than an hour;- just the right attendance span for these young people;- and I might add some seniors!!! We hope in the next year or so to vary our field trips; for example we're going to add a Fall one around Lake Simcoe, right on our doorstep to see wintering gulls, and wildfowl. This summer we're going to Owen Sound to look at stars and planets through a telescope. It's not all about birds we have many people with varied interests; two of the next events are focussed on wildflowers. Perhaps we need to have more local short trips in the evenings during the week, such as we had during our anniversary celebrations last May. We do need your help and input in this area We need leaders;- you don't have to be an expert in any particular field; there are always those in the field with you who can help. We can use people who would be willing to act as substitutes. Although information on our trips is amply presented in the local press your best source of information on these trips is this website, as times, dates and contacts, may change at the last moment. Visit this website often. It contains a wealth of information and valuable links. Recently we sent an email to all members about the Gosling Foundation. Please study this carefully and visit their website for more information. This Foundation provides funding for nature education of our young people. I urge anyone with special interests in this area to contact any of our executive members. In future we're going to be faced with even more challenging developmental threats to our environment. There is the political threat of fast tracking environmental clearance for developers, and we are going to have to be more vigilant to ensure that we can protect those creatures, and plants that cannot protect themselves from our wanton activities. Al McNair has done an excellent job protecting and preserving our wildlife through his advocacy . We are however a small group and we're going to have to prioritize those issues that we actively pursue in the year ahead. We have lots of challenges and we are looking forward to exciting times ahead. In the meantime please get out on as many of our field trips as you can. David Lord, President The Gables
May 2, 2012 Trip Report This 43 acre natural park within the City of Barrie features majestic towering maple and beech trees, forested shoreline on Kempenfelt Bay, spectacular carpets of naturalized spring flowers and our early North American native wildflowers. The Yellows Anemones were at their best and the White Trilliums are abundant now, and the display should hold for the next few weeks. In spite of the thunderstorm that passed through the east end of Barrie just before our departure, 15 people showed up for the evening walk to identify and enjoy the plants and birds in the park. The temperature of 16 ̊C dropped to 13̊C. during our 2 ½ hour outing. Plants Observed:- Annual Honesty, Black Raspberry, Blue Cohosh, Canadian Yew, Celadine buds, Common Dandelion, basal rosettes of Dame's Rocket, Downy Yellow Violet, Early Meadow-rue, False Solomon's Seal, Hairy Solomon’s Seal, Garlic Mustard, Large-flowered Bellwort, Kidney-leaf Buttercup, basal rosettes of Motherwort, Pin Cherry, Prickly Gooseberry, Sharp-lobed Hepatica, Squirrel Corn, Staghorn Sumac, Trout Lily, Two-leafed Toothwort, Virginia Bluebells, Virginia Waterleaf, Red-berried Elderberry, Red Trillium, Ural False Spiraea, White Trillium, Wild Ginger, Wild Lily-of-the-Valley, Wild Leek, Wild Red Raspberry & Wood Anemone. Garden Escapes:- Common Lilac, Forsythia, the last few blooms of Glory of the Snow, Spring Squill & Striped Squill; Lesser Periwinkle, Lily of the Valley, Saxifrage Pink plants, Sedum, & Yellow Anemone. Birds Observed:- Red-necked Grebe, Bufflehead, Common Merganser, Merlin, Ring-billed Gull, Pileated Woodpecker Blue Jay, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, Nashville Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Northern Cardinal & American Goldfinch. I received in the mail a reminder about this year's Baillee Birdathon which is held every year in May. This is the oldest sponsored bird count in North America, raising money for bird research and conservation. The challenge is to identify as many bird species as possible within a 24-hour period, during the month of May. The money raised benefits Bird Studies Canada, the James L. Baillie Memorial Fund, and participating migration monitoring stations and conservation organizations, such as BFNC, receive a portion of funds raised Click on the image below to go to their web site. 
An event upcoming at the beginning of June is the Carden Nature Festival. The Festival gets larger every year and is a great way to learn more about the Carden Alvar IBA. Click on the image below to go to their web site for more information 
Cornell University has a pair of nest cams on thier web site. One is a Red-tailed Hawk nest and the other is appropriate as it is a Great Blue Heron nest. Click on the image below to go to the Heron cam. There will be a link to the Red-tail cam as well
Bruce Wilson Web Master
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